beads

puffin bird bead

2009-06-15T12:12:00.000-07:00

This bird bead was made using a tutorial by Jennifer Geldard. I used soft glass from various manufacturers including Devardi ( a Indian glass), Moretti, CBS dichroic, and Lauscha. Two techniques I appreciated most about this tutorial are the making and application of eye cane and shaping the bird beak.

This bead is in the process of being made into a pendant and gifted to a dear friend who adores birds and loves all things dichroic.

Elephant Cuff Bracelet by Cindy Hayes

2009-05-10T09:16:00.000-07:00

Cindy won this bead on Ebay and created a masterpiece. Thank you Cindy.

Magic of Aurae and Aether

2009-04-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

Like all the bead makers, I have a large stash of expensive silver glass. But despite never ending attempts, I can't seem to get consistent result. A bead can come out beautiful and full of magic one day and next day, blah.

This time I think I have found the glass of my dreams by using a combination of Double Helix Aurae dark and Aether clear. Of course, I plan to continue to experiment and see if other silver glass combination will yield magical results also. This constant opportunity to explore is why I am never bored with lampwork.

Tide Pool Pandora and Focal Beads

2009-03-27T08:07:00.000-07:00

It is great fun to make these tide pool beads. I get to use my hand made murrini's, silver ivory stringers, silver mesh. When a bead is encased in clear, all the details get magnified. The most time consuming part is the final shaping because I wanted them to be cubical.

Seashell Beach

2009-03-16T20:23:00.000-07:00

Landscape is one consistent theme in my beads. Right now I like to make these seashell beads. They usually incorporate ivory, silver glass, .999 pure silver mesh, and handmade murrini shells. This bead has handmade sterling silver cores and will fit the Pandora, Biagi, and Trollbeads bracelets.

Woodland Wildflowers

2009-03-12T22:37:00.000-07:00

Recently, I can't seem to make fused pendants without adding these Bullseye murrini onto the surface. Your comments/critique will be most appreciated.

Cindy Hayes Wirework

2009-03-11T19:33:00.000-07:00

I have many talented jewelry designers among my customer base. One of them is Cindy Hayes. She has a way with wire and can turn my beads into works of art.

If you are interested in contacting Cindy to design a piece of jewelry, please email me. Remember Mother's day is only 2 months away.

Magic of Silver Glass

2009-03-10T21:59:00.000-07:00

One of my most favorite thing to do at my torch is play with my stash of silver glass. These glass are made by various enterprising US glass manufacturers like Trautman, Double Helix, Precision, and Striking Colors. Each color consists of silver which can result in "boro" like effect in soft glass.

This bead was made using an assortment I recently purchased from Flamedame. I used blue silver water, green envy, green dali lama, and seaweed to try out the colors. Needless to say I am very happy with the result and will definitely by playing some more in the next few days.

beach theme Pandora beads

2008-05-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

Using a bead press from Moores' Tools, I have added silver lining to my Pandora lampwork beads. They are great fun to make. Besides the usual designs, I recently started making bracelet beads with a beach theme. These organic beads are usually based on ivory with silver foil, silver glass stringer, and hand pulled murrini.

canyon butterfly

2008-05-01T10:29:00.000-07:00

I love how this bead came out. It has so much depth and variation of colors. It incorporated one of my few precious butterfly murrini from Beth Olson.

Unfortunately, I detected a small hairline crack deep within the core. It has not gotten bigger for almost a week. I guess its a sign that I should keep it for myself.

Pandora Biagi Trollstyled Beads

2008-02-23T11:06:00.001-08:00

I have been making the large hole beads for the European bracelets like Pandora Biagi and Trollbeads for almost a year. Recently I bought a Jim Moore bead liner tool and had lots of fun lining the beads.

Mermaid Cove with 22k gold decals

2008-01-07T12:42:00.001-08:00

I love working with silver glass which when torched and annealed just right can yield beads with magical colors. However when conditions are not quite right, one get most times dark blue like this lentil bead. But doesn't it look just perfect as background for the gold mermaid and seashell decals? The decals after application to the bead were low fired in a 1140 degree kiln to be permanently fused to the glass.

Evergreen Tree Bead

2007-11-16T22:37:00.000-08:00

I love making tree beads against various scenic background. The background is melted flat while the tree is left raised for 3d texture. This bead measures about 37mm diameter with 2+mm stringing hole.

Aquarium Focal Bead

2007-08-25T08:49:00.000-07:00

This aquarium bead has a transparent cobalt blue core wrapped with sparkling dichroic. I used Vetrofond river rock swirled with silvered ivory for the seabed. A few handpulled starfish murrini were added to the seabed for color. The adorable fish murrini are from Heather Ferman and Beth Olson. The bead measures 29x24mm.

Reactive Bead Exchange

2007-08-15T10:46:00.001-07:00

I signed up for LE (Lampwork Etc) reactive bead exchange. Here are my 3 submissions. The first is Reichenbach 146 (transparent iris black) on Vetrofond shell pink, the middle is Moretti grasshopper green vines with Vetrofond Pajama blue flower on Vetrofond river rock or avocado, and the third is Reichenbach 136 (transparent iris green) on Moretti light periwinkle.

Grasshopper Green...Delicious

2007-08-05T09:46:00.001-07:00

This is a fairly new color from Moretti. The reason I like it is because it showcases raku frits and some of the new silver glass from R4 and Double Helix beautifully.

The spacers are dusted with raku. The barrel and the unencased large hole beads have been accented with R4 Mirro and Michaelangelo. The squeezed/tab and the encased large hole bead are accented with Terra frits from Double Helix.

Sculpture Flower Bead

2007-06-12T09:24:00.000-07:00

Using a set of new toys invented by fellow bead artist, Karen Leonardo, I made this flower pendant. The petals were made using her petal puller tool, kept warm on a hot plate, and added to a tabular bead. The whole process takes up to one hour and there are plenty of room for improvement but I am happy with the progress so far. This bead measures 46mm diameter or about 1-5/8".

Ocean View

2007-04-21T22:50:00.000-07:00

I really like this bead. I will part with it when I make another I like better. Well, hope that will be soon.

Cherry Blossoms

2007-04-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

I had great fun creating the background for the blossoms. I had bought a frit blend from Bluheeler Glass a couple of years ago and could never get the colors to bloom until yesterday when I found that Moretti silver pink is the secret. Of course there may be other colors which may work but I love how this bead came out. Happy Easter.

Reduction Frits with Silver Foil

2007-03-08T21:42:00.000-08:00

I love how beautiful some reduction frits react with silver foil. This one looks like a mini galaxy.

Double Helix NYX Silver Glass

2007-02-09T19:16:00.000-08:00

A long tapered bicone bead made with a new NYX silver glass from Double Helix Glass. In the past months, I have spent a small fortune buying silver rich soft glass. However I was never able to get the iridescent or the creamy texture I was suppose to get. Fortunately, my luck changed with NYX. Now beads come out of the annealing kiln looking shimmery fumed.

Lampwork Focal Bead - Rock Flowers

2007-01-20T10:19:00.000-08:00

This bead measures 37mm tall (~1-1/2"). It is a oval lentil. For the background, I used various colorful frits on ivory, sky blue, and a Lauscha color of the month glass called Caramello which has the colors of sunset. I left the flowers raised for surface texture.

Dichroic Nature Scenes

2006-12-21T07:45:00.000-08:00

Dichroic jewelry can be too bright or if the dichroic coating is substandard too dull and almost one dimensional. The past couple of weeks I have been fusing non-stop to give my work more texture and dimension. All the new pieces require multiple iterations of fusing and cold work.

flower pendant

2006-10-18T20:34:00.001-07:00

A customer recently requested that I make her some of these flower pendants. She is a beaded (yes, the tiny seed beads) jewelry designer and creates gorgeous necklaces with these. The vertical stringing hole allows her to add dangles of charms and beads to her work.

Hollow Lampwork Beads

2006-09-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

Its really fun to make hollow beads. There are many tutorials on the web detailing the methods used by various bead makers. I like to make them the Smircich way. It is showcased in his Volume One DVD, Smircich Makes Beads! To make the hollow focal, I build up 2 parallel discs about 5/8" apart. Then the discs are joined, shaped, accented with raku reduction frit, and voila, a new line of hollow bead sets is born.

Japanese Crane Dichroic Cabochon

2006-08-17T15:24:00.000-07:00

I love how this one came out. It will be hard to part with it.

A Little Dichroic Sparkle

2006-08-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a bead with dichroic all exposed can be over bright. Here I rolled the dichroic covered bead in assorted frit and only allow the sparkle to peek through here and there. What do you think?

CBS Pixie Stix

2006-07-21T08:52:00.000-07:00

This new CBS pixie stix dichroic pattern is now my favorite. I see lots of potentials using it in fusing projects because I like the abstract disorderly designs.

Reichenbach Canes

2006-06-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

Over the past year I have played with the Reichenbach reduction canes off and on. Yesterday, despite the 100 degree heat, I was obsessed to test them again.

Eventhough furnace glass canes have COE of 92-96; they work well with soft glass. I used them with Bullseye and Uroboros freely. With Moretti, I keep the ratio below 5% and have no problems.

Here I have the 2 beads on the left based on Bullseye (90), the large lentil on Vetrofond pale ivory(104), and the little sleek pillow is on Uroboros(96). The canes I used for the petals are gold ruby(R2), yellow aurora (R8), heliotrope(R11), Hyacinth violet(r14). For the base of the petals, I used Gaffer ivory.

Denim Beach Sponges-A Hollow Lentil Focal Bead

2006-06-09T09:08:00.000-07:00

Recently I started making a new series called Denim Beach Sponges. They have been well received. This one is special because it took me over one hour at the torch to complete. It is a hollow lentil bead. It measures 37x37x18mm . Often, it is difficult to judge the amount of glass needed to make a large round lentil bead. So I really sweated it when building up the glass walls for the hollow bead before pressing. I was greatly relieved that it came out perfect. Since I don't know if I will ever be so fortunate, I am going to showcase it in my Ebay store at a high price tag.

Kugler Pinks

2006-06-02T11:09:00.000-07:00

The pinks in the first tab is the Kugler lilac pink and in the second bead I used Kugler passion pink. I like both because not only are they pretty, they are totally compatible with Moretti and Lauscha.

Enamel and Copper Leaf

2006-05-14T13:12:00.000-07:00

There are so many things I want to try out when I am at the torch. Yesterday I was obsessed with playing with enamel and copper leaf. Here is a large lentil focal (about 34x34mm) based on various Moretti compatible glass rolled in melon orange enamel, wrapped with copper leaf, and accented with reduction frit blend from Spiral Dancer. Love the patches of green and blue produced by the copper leaf.

Lauscha Buck Horn

2006-04-27T09:25:00.000-07:00

I really like how this bead. It is 43mm long and 14mm wide. It consists of many of my favrorite colors including copper green, red roof tile, and of course raku. However, for me, the the reaction I got from the Lauscha buck horn. Normally I get a blah translucent beige color but in this bead it developed patches of translucent coral orange. More experiment must be made so I can reproduce this effect :)

Raised Floral Tab Focal

2006-04-02T13:04:00.000-07:00

Spring is upon us and its time to bring out the pastel palette and garden themes. Here is a large tabular focal bead 40x24x10mm. I used various Moretti and Lauscha glass as base , encased silver pink dichroic to give it depth and sparkle, sprinkled frit on the surface, flatten, and added raised flowers on one side.

Metal and Dichroic

2006-03-23T18:38:00.000-08:00

I sure had fun making these 2 beads. The first bead is a test bead where I wanted to see if I can apply color and silver to a bead simultaneously. It worked. So on the second bead I encased it with dichroic and gold foil before application of silver and color.

Ellipse Focal

2006-03-08T13:55:00.000-08:00

It was great fun using this new Ellipse shape tool from Zoozii's. I like the off center design which ensures that the piece will not flip upside down when worn. The peacock eyes are made with raku or Reichenbach R108 twisties.

Bead Mosaic

2006-02-25T17:53:00.000-08:00

Over time I managed to accumulate quite a few broken or imperfect beads. Many are just too pretty to throw away. I have fused the larger one into cabochons and recently I started to make mosaic cabochons using the smaller spacer beads. Here they are fused onto a piece of dichroic. You can detect the dichroic spark here and there. Some of you may recognize the name of the spacers I used because I have made and sold quite a few similar to these.

A Seaside Garden Lentil Focal Bead

2006-02-04T19:11:00.000-08:00

A large lentil focal bead measures 28mm diameter. I love to make abstract garden beads like these where glass is accented by frit of assorted colors and sizes to create a painting on glass.

Egg Shape Beads

2006-01-28T10:10:00.000-08:00

Today, a glass maker can get most geometric shape presses to help create beads. My collection includes lentil of assorted sizes, pillow, orrb, squeeze, and now a egg press. In my opinion, it is not a easy press to use. After pressing I had to use my graphite marver to smooth out the ends. I will offer one of these egg beads as prize for my next Ebay drawing on February 12th. If you are interested, please visit my Ebay bead shop for signing up information. Each bead is about 25x17mm.

A Millefiori Barrette

2006-01-18T13:31:00.000-08:00

Usually my glass barrettes are made with recycled dichroic pendants and cabs but occasionally I like to fuse Italian millefiori canes onto various art glass to make barrettes like this. They are most times accented with a bit of dichroic to give them spark. I have listed this barrette in my Etsy shop.

A new fused piece

2006-01-01T12:07:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year. I didn't get too much done over the holidays because my grandbabies' came visit. Here is one piece I completed. I like the mosaic look created by overlaying the dichroic pattern piece over a silver pink dichroic background.

Blowing Glass Shards

2005-12-17T09:40:00.000-08:00

A much admired bead artist, Jennifer Geldard, shared her technique in blowing glass shards in WetCanvas Glass Forum. Although I am still unable to blow the bubble into the size of an orange yet, I am pleased to be able to use the thicker shards to make these focal beads.

Raku Waves

2005-12-13T23:17:00.000-08:00

This wave bead was made with raku (R108) stringer onU96 turquoise . The curves are created with the help of gravity, a technique developed by master bead maker, Jim Smircich.

Freeform Dichroic Earrings

2005-12-09T12:55:00.000-08:00

I have supplied these dichroic mosaic cabs to customers to wire wrap and bezel set into earrings. My earring design is a bit simpler where I glued loop findings to the back of the cabs and hung them on surgical steel earring wires.

A Vessel

2005-12-03T23:16:00.000-08:00

This vessel almost became a plant stake this morning. It took a long time toget it off the mandrel. I used U96 almond as base, raku stringer as lip, Gaffer peach as handles, and assorted reduction frit.

Fake Borosilicate Bead

2005-11-30T21:43:00.000-08:00

Borosilicate or boro beads are very popular but they requires a super hot torch to make. This bead was made using soft glass and reduction glass frit.

Wave Bracelet

2005-11-28T12:07:00.000-08:00

I found this design in a bead magazine where Swarovski crystals were used. Since I happen to have a stash of curved Thai silver beads, I made this bracelet using my orphan beads. I plan to make many of these for the holidays.

A Fused Millefiori Pendant

2005-11-24T16:31:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving. This is not a new piece but I thought it would be an appropriate entry on this wonderful holiday. I enjoy fusing Italian millefiori canes with dichroic together. Here I also included butterfly and frog canes by glass artist Beth Olsen.

A focal bead

2005-11-21T20:13:00.000-08:00

I like how this one came out. It is a transparent bead with encased dichroic and 24kt gold foil and surface rolled in glass frit. It is made with my large lentil press and measures over 30mm diameter.

PI Glass

2005-11-18T22:50:00.000-08:00

My appologies for the poor picture. These are test beads made with PI glass and glass frit blend from Blue Heeler Glass. You can see that some of the colors have reactive characteristics similar to Moretti. This is important to me because unlike Moretti, PI glass is COE96 and therefore totally compatible with furnace glass frit.

Fossil Beads

2005-11-16T11:31:00.000-08:00

Like many fellow bead makers, I am addicted to using glass frit and powders to accent my beads. I like how these came out. They look old and have nice soothing bumpy surface texture. These will be the prize for the next bead drawing on November 27. If interested, please visit my Ebay store (bead shop link on the side bar) and join my mailing list.

Bead Transformation

2005-11-14T21:42:00.000-08:00

This is a cabochon made from a bead which broke due to thermal shock. I was crushed when it happened but now I purposely break beads to make cabs. Many customer like them because they look 3 dimensional.

Silver and Glass

2005-11-13T08:24:00.000-08:00

Bead makers are always searching for a clear glass which can be applied over silver and not turn it into gold. Often we substitute silver with palladium leaf which is very expensive. Therefore I am very pleased that the new Kugler 104 clear used to case this bead kept the silver foil sparkling.

A custom order

2005-11-10T22:47:00.000-08:00

These are the dichroic leaf focal beads I made for a jewelry designer in Australia. They are made with Moretti glass and CBS dichroic. It is interesting that when I started lampwork many years ago, I made leaf focals like these. Today they are still my best sellers.

Dancing Frog Jewelry

Ebay Store

Dichroic Pretzel Cabs

2005-11-09T22:43:00.000-08:00

I like to make these cabs with lots of stringing holes. They are made of 100% dichroic glass. I play with colors and patterns of the dichroic pieces until they are just right and fuse the cab in a high temperature glass kiln. The dichroic are fused exposed for bumpy satin texture.

Some customers just glue a finding on the back and wear them as pendants or brooches. Although most of my customers make them into jewelry by bezel setting them in silver.

Dancing Frog Jewelry

My Ebay Store

Val Cox' November Frit Sampler

2005-11-08T22:59:00.000-08:00

Many of us in the lampwork bead world have heard of Val Cox. Val is not only a talented bead artist but a savvy business person who introduced lampworkers to the magic of glass reduction frit (small glass chips). Val has a frit of the Month club which I am a subscriber. This month I received a sampler of frit consist of pink, ruby, fuschia glass shards( confetti) and flakes of silver foil. Above is a set of beads I made using the sampler on various colors of transparent and opaque glass base. I like the reaction (dark spots) created by the reduced silver foil.

Please read my bead diary

Dancing Frog Jewelry

My Ebay store

Bullsye Luster colors

2005-11-07T07:12:00.000-08:00

The new Bullseye luster colors are copper green, uranium yellow, brandy, and green. Here is a set of beads I made recently using these colors.

See more fused and lampwork beads, please visit

Dancing Frog Jewelry

My Ebay Store

My many bead adventures are documented in my Bead Diary